RICARDO’S ROLE IS NEW WAY FORWARD
WE’VE all seen what happens when a manager gets sacked. The new guy arrives, says ‘Right, these players haven’t won anything, so they ain’t good enough’. Then, he gets rid of them all and brings in his mates.
Six months later, he’s been sacked, too, and the whole process starts again. The turnover of players is ridiculous. The cost of paying people off is ridiculous.
That’s why, at Notts County, we’re doing things differently. As head of recruitment, I see myself as protection for the club.
Managers come and go, but the club will always be there and it needs a philosophy, that doesn’t depend on the whims of one man.
You just need to look at Watford to see how well it works. The Hornets, whose structure is similar to ours, went through four managers last season and still won promotion. That’s not to say our manager, Ricardo Moniz, is sidelined. We meet every Thursday. We bring each other players. We don’t just chuck a bunch of lads on his doorstep and say ‘There you go, pal, play with those toys’. He’s massively involved.
But his ideas match our idea, which is to recruit players and add value. That’s why we hired Ricardo, who is a fantastic coach.
We want a coach who controls what happens on the pitch. You see 36-yearolds straight out of playing who want full control. But why should someone like that get involved with the academy? What does he know about youth development? It’s crazy.
Like us, a lot of clubs are now saying ‘Hang on, you worry about coaching the team. We’ll worry about the staff and the players’.